Pittston nurse accused of stealing patients' Percocet pills

Deborah Kozar told an agent with the state attorney general's office she knew she should not be stealing Percocet from patients, but "the beast" was bigger.

Magisterial District Judge James A. Gibbons arraigned the registered nurse working at Geisinger Mountain View Care Center in Scranton on Wednesday after she admitted to stealing 53 Percocet pills from seven patients and replacing their prescribed medication with Tylenol to feed her own drug habit.

Kozar, of Pittston Township, came under scrutiny in March when other nurses heard from patients their medication looked different.

An audit of all in-house narcotic blister packs found 53 Percocet pills were replaced with Tylenol for seven patients.

In a meeting with Agent Renee Magnotta and center administration, Kozar said she has been addicted to pain medication for the last four years, but the past year has been the worst in her struggle. She has rheumatoid arthritis and had been prescribed other narcotics, but they did not work for her and she wished she had never been prescribed them.

According to online state records, her nursing license is still active. She was issued her license in July 2000 and last renewed it in October 2012. It is due to expire in October 2014.

Police charged her with possession of a controlled substance through misrepresentation, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, neglect of care of a dependent person and theft by unlawful taking. The assault charge stems from bodily harm caused by replacing a powerful pain medication with Tylenol.

She was released from custody on $5,000 unsecured bail. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.